I’m glad I saved my last Bison Brownie Badge, at the last moment deciding that a minion was unworthy. Oh, he acted all caring and giving but in his black heart he wanted me to work harder and faster. If I want that I can go to work or home. I’m supposed to be getting rich here without all that effort. Oh, wait. I can’t get my readers to write all my articles. Okay, not SO much effort. But, no. Here, Jim, I love you. I care about you. Here is research material. To help you. Damn, its just another very interesting and enlightening article to read. I’m kidding. Thank goodness I have loyal legions of doom ( Challenge of the Super Friends - Attack of the Legion of Doom
) that have the time to scout out material for me. If you don’t donate, or can’t afford Amazon, and have already bought my books, then the next best thing is dredging up stuff I don’t have time to find. I have very obliging readers- most help to support me and the Bison staff very well. Thanks, everyone. And thanks to Anonymous for the snail mail donation. Got it this weekend. You get the Brownie Badge. *
As you all know, I now officially hate Wal-Mart. I used to sing its praise to all and sundry. But just as in most of my ex-wives that were kind and loving until they viciously turned evil and snapped at me with acid spewing saliva, once loved now scorned. Wal-Mart ( The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and How It's Transforming the American Economy
) did its part, offering the working poor low priced items in a well stocked warehouse of consumer orgasmic bliss. I tried to tell everyone how wonderful they were and insist they shop there. But, alas, they screwed something up ( my guess is that they overextended financially and when X% in decrease of sales happened it all fell apart ). And now they offer a few good deals and try to screw you over in other obscene and hideous ways. What have the Mule Member Masticating Morons done this time? They don’t stock my black slacks size anymore. I used to be able to get the $10 slacks ( thrift stores never seem to have any slacks in under a 44 waist ) in 34x36. Or, 36x36. Now the length is only 34. So as I’m peddling in cold weather ( thankfully, as Gore Warming [ Stop global warming, live like Al Gore - funny stickers (Small 5 x 1.4 in.)
] kicks in this year, nothing under 20 degrees yet ) and the darn pant legs ride up exposing my calves/shins to cold air. Tucking them in to the snow boots ( Sorel Women's NL1082 Snowlion Boot,Black,9 M
) don’t work, they just ride up and out. And I don’t want to tuck them into my socks because that will stretch the elastic out. Does anyone know where I can buy those military type green elastic bands with hooks on the ends that are used to blouse your pant legs? I don’t even remember their names anymore ( and I used to just tape the legs around my ankles anyway, rather than use the circulation cutting bands- not a concern now as I’ll be only wearing them 45 minutes each way to work ). *
Don’t you hate when this happens? You find a great piece on the Internet and you swear you know where to find it and then a scant few hours later you are flailing about cursing the very gods for your existence, unable come Hell or high water ( Hell and High Water: Global Warming--the Solution and the Politics--and What We Should Do
) to locate it. This happened to me on Saturday. I was here at work for the food drive ( we did better than last year- this town is obscene with charitable giving, making us one of the few food banks around not in dire straights ) and got in some InterWeb time before I clocked in. A very interesting article by, I think I’m remembering correctly, Ranger Man (http://www.shtfblog.com/ ).In it he said something to the effect that discord and disagreement shouldn’t be discouraged on blogs. That the bulk of the readers joined forces to ostracize the unbelievers. It had a nice cartoon with flaming torches. The reason I wanted to read the article again was because he had a good point that I wanted to elaborate on. And I couldn’t find it. So I’m just winging it here and apologize to the author for any misrepresentation. Yes, there is a danger to not allowing dissent on a blog. If no outside views are allowed then sometimes important pieces of the big picture are ignored. Now, having said that, I must present to you the logical outcome of a survival blog that doesn’t include self-policing readers. My chicken little ( Chicken Little
), sky is falling, we are all headed for the stewpot warning degenerate into a feel-good hand holding where once everyone has a BOB they all relax and go back to business as usual, paying a mortgage and filling up the SUV. *
When a fresh face walks into the Bison Survival Blog Super Discount Store and tries to smooth over fears and anxieties, what happens? More often than not he is shouted down for being an ignorant ass who drank the Pollyanna flavored Kool-Aid. Thank goodness, because I’m having a hard enough time singing to the choir as it is. I mention Peak Oil ( Peak Oil Survival: Preparation for Life After Gridcrash
) and the experienced hands know enough to not say anything even though they disagree with me. The inexperienced NUG says some dumbass thing like we have three hundred years of coal left and I rant and rave against him for most of the next week. If I didn’t say anything, or if another minion didn’t, before long more and more of his buddies would gather over here and start heckling me and we would degenerate into a “buy an AR-15, a can of freeze dried donkey dung and a $300 water filter, crank up the generator and live like a Yuppie through any short term natural disaster” kind of blog. I couldn’t abide that. This site is all about panic and paranoia and I’ll thank you all to remember that. We don’t content ourselves with a feel-good hunk of equipment and go about the regular business of American Empire. ( American Empire Before the Fall
) We shriek in freight, run and dive under a remote rural table, count our wheat kernels and rimfire shells and stroke the butt of our WWII surplus bolt action whispering at it, “my sweet, my sweet”. *
Yes, at times it gets a bit boring and preachy here. But unless someone can prove to me resources don’t deplete and energy use isn’t now mostly of less efficient materials I refuse to do anything other than scream the sky is falling.
END
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/
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My e-mail is jimd303@netzero.com
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Anyone can submit a guest article. No minimum word length, no writing skill necessary ( just get the idea across ). You retain copyright ( this must be your original writing ) and I’ll just use the once. I’ve yet to turn down an article, just don’t use the N Bomb or libel another that can sue me. Send by e-mail ( please, label as “guest article” so I can find it easily later ). Payment will be your removal from my enemies list.
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17 comments:
You had it right, Bison Bro, but I took the "groupthink" article down, because everyone got hell bent out of shape over it, saying they were tired of me "attacking" MD Creekmore and that I must be jealous of his success. They were ready to lynch me, so I just took the whole thing down. Don't cross the mob mentality.
In reality, the article was more about what you walked away with - groupthink and stifling dissenting voices.
I was thinking that gaiters might solve your highwater pants problem. There are neoprene varieties out there too that just velcro on and off. If you don't want to spend any money, I'm sure it would not be hard to fabricate a pair from scrap material and para cord.
Jim,
Try; www.siagonsamsmilitary.com, out of Jacksonville NC.
2 bucks for a pack of 2 plus shipping. Hold your money though, I need to order some myself, and will send a few your way. Christmas gift.
Bob
trouser blousers or blousing garters ????
Amazon has them.Amazon also has the newer type:
Foliage Green Wide Boot Blousers For ACU (One Pair) $5.99
Does it get cold in africa?
Why not just get some gaiters and call it good? Should keep said bicycle chain and pants away from each other. And if that freaking mutt from Hell that is infected with RAGE virus bites, he gets a something besides pink flesh.
Just a thought - sorry for the hassle. Hey, cheap slacks ANYWHERE is getting scarce, even SA is raising prices, at least down here.
What you're looking for is boot blousers, but thank God I don't think they sell them any more. You can make something like them, Oops wait you're not handy. Bike shops sell all kinds of bands for pants legs for bicyclists, and I'm sure you can get any of them from Amazon, being the kind of wealthy puke who CAN afford Amazon (has it ever occurred to you that you may be richer than 90% of your minions?) You could also use girls' ponytail elastics, or just large rubber bands. If you get veggies at the food bank, the big purple rubber bands that are used to bundle broccoli and asparagus are good ones.
Wal-Mart is indeed great. I can't find pants my size (cargos, 30x30 or 30x32) to save my life in thrift stores. But I can get 'em at Wal's just fine. Military surplus pants are great, but cost about $40 a pair now. They are the ultimate in comfort and practicality though. The only problem is, camo looks too extremist. Dark blue only makes one look like a cop, so that leaves plain tan. They are very mendable, last forever, and work great in cold weather with sweat pants underneath.
Hey, James, yeah, that was a good post by Rangerman, but then commenters convinced him that mystic1 (or whomever) was truly a troll and so he removed the post. So, that's why ya can't find it.
34x36? You too!? I'm more 33x36. Finding pants is a pain because most stores don't stock anything longer than a 36" inseam.
I use reflective velcro pant protectors (i.e. bands) that I picked up at the local bike store.
Ranger Man- I loved the article because it pointed out an uncomfortable truth. I like the conundrum issues.
For pants when biking. Buy the sticky back hook and loop velcro.
Stick to itself so that hook is on one side and loop is on the other side. Cut to length you like.
A square meter of Arizona land has 6 kilowatt hours worth of sunlight hitting it per day.
An acre of land has 4,000 square meters (rounded down).
That's 24,000 kwh per day.
A solar panel converts about 1/5 of that into energy, so we're down to just under 5,000 kwh per day per acre.
A barrel of oil contains 1700 Kwh.
So, our acre of barren Arizona desert is equivalent to almost 2.5 barrels of oil per day.
There are 640 acres to a square mile--or 1600 barrels of oil/day per square mile.
There are 114,000 square miles in Arizona, or 182,400,000 barrels of oil per day.
The US uses around 20 million barrels of oil per day TOTAL.
1/10 of Arizona desert has enough solar energy hitting it to replace nearly all the oil used in the entire United States.
If you covered half of Arizona in solar panels, you could replace all the oil used in the entire world.
That assumes that solar technology doesn't improve.
There is no energy crisis or energy shortage--only a crisis of greed and stupidity and a shortage of brains and balls.
Don't tell me solar is "expensive"--disaster and cannibalism is expensive too.
You do realize that even after the SHTF the first will be first and the last will remain last? Sure a few of the "firsts" will kill eachother in power struggles, but the losers who can't make it in this economy will do no better after the collapse.
Society's losers and underclass who think TEOTWAWKI will be a giant "reset" button, where they will finally triumph over the rich, are sadly mistaken.
The world has "ended" many times in the past, and the peasants and the plebs basically stayed peasants and plebs except for a few ingenious and ruthless souls who scrapped their way to the top of the heap during the chaos.
If you are at the bottom of society now, well, when society falls....you're going even lower.
How much natural gas do we have to replace gasoline?
According to Robert Rapier via The Oildrum;
"enough gas for 53 years of combined current natural gas consumption and gasoline consumption."
"It also appears that we have enough natural gas available that civilization isn't going to end any time soon due to lack of energy supplies."
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/5615
"Get a rope."
...To tie yer pants legs. Or, you can make some fasteners out of black webbing and fastex fasteners. There found on junky backpacks and dog collars. They last for years... And they don't cut off circulation like r-bands do.
As a bicyclist, I've found that I get some looks for my leg clips, but it beats having my pants ruined!
The trick is to roll them a bit (the excess width, not the cuffs)and clip them then.
Gaiters are good, but they cost. (and are more of a hassle.)
Lord Bison,
Do you keep records of the stuff I buy on Amazon so I can earn my Bison Brownie Badge? I know... some of it is Yuppie stuff for the wife. Its the thought that counts.
Great post.
Jeez, I want everyone who called them anything but blousing rubbers to drop and give me twenty...You guys must all be squids or flyboys.
They are called blousing rubbers...They come four to a pack. CIVILIANS....If they don't follow through on a freebie mention it and I'll send you a set of four from the PX.
Good Golly, Bison - I read you and I think "I love that man" - keep up the good work.
"This site is about panic and paranoia and I'll thank you all to remember that."
Quite right! That's why we read you, Jim. Other sites, written by good, well meaning people (no sarcasm intended!) advise what one needs to get through short term disasters. This is all very commendable but with you, we readers get, I dunno, the "volume turned up higher". To make your points, you "lean more out of the window".
Example: sharing your stuff after a disaster. Other sites ignore this, either not to offend readers or because the consequences are simply too horrible to consider. You, on the other hand, have the courage (I'd like to call it "intellectual honesty"...but that implies intellectual dishonesty on other's parts) to address such things.
I like to hope that the US will have some sort "turbulent decline" but your site is invaluable, in that flat out collapse is addressed.
Donation and "care package" will soon be sent and I encourage my fellow readers to do the same...we can't have #4 leaving in a huff and Jim's stuff getting stolen, while he's at work!
What is pretty expensive but lasts a long time are the Duluth Trading Fire Hose Pants - about $45. I've had a pair of those for 4 years and they still are going strong. I expect for them to last me at least another 2 - 3 years. Duluth Trading - give them a look. Free shipping for anything over $50.
A pair of blue jeans that costs half that will last me about a year, year and a half tops. The pockets are pretty used up (wear a big a$$ truckers wallet) and the belt loops take a whooping too.
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